The X100 is versatile, even with its tiny sensor you can make short ass depth of field images if you crank it open. Definitely my favourite camera of the moment. Love its size and power compared to its bigger, uglier, heaver full frame dslr cousin.

Love the X100 more and more. This is now hanging on a couple of walls in my family’s houses. Looks terrific in the frame. Taken on All Saints’ Day, my mother-in-law’s birthday as it happens. It was photographed somewhere around here.

I’ve just returned from a trip to Ethiopia where I was filming for a couple of NGOs – APA-CVM and SHA – more on them separately. Ethiopia was the first country I visited in Africa and as a result, it is a special place for me. This was my second trip there. Culturally it’s completely unlike anywhere else I’ve been – there’s a sense of ancientness as if nothing has really changed in the last couple of millennia except for the penetration of mobile phones. And the towns. The towns are not attractive, with litter strewn around the place, interspersed with mangy looking goats and the odd sheep or cow. The towns are generally dives, the driving appalling, the diesel fumes terrible but overall I still love the place. The countryside is stunning though, really beautiful in the early morning or late evening when the sun is low in the sky. This is where utter beauty lies …

Set off from Lanjaron at 9,30 and walked through the town, stopped to fill water bottles at local spring and started climbing up the valley at the east end of the village. Steep and hot but very pleasant. Climbed about 1000m by lunchtime, stopped by a river for picnic and then made a traverse over mountain paths before descending back down into the village by about 5,30 with a total of about 29,000 steps, a round trip of around 12k. Beautiful scenery, knackered.

To celebrate Hugo’s first ever circuit of The Spinc, I’ve uploaded a little memento. It was September 29th, on an absolutely beautiful day, barely a cloud in the sky and that very agreeable autumn temperature somewhere between mild and cool, just perfect for walking. Hugo was a trooper on the hike, literally and figuratively, not a peep or complaint out of him. He’s pictured above with his big bro Ben, who made a similar first circuit of The Spinc at about the same age, five years before and pictured below.

I hope that if I impart nothing they’ll continue to appreciate the hills and the great outdoors, no matter where they end up living their lives.

In memory of my dear brother Dave, it’s almost your second anniversary and I still miss you like mad, think of you every day. You’re living on in the rest of us and especially through your brilliant children.

There’s a rock up here, near the top of Tonduff East, which looks out over the source of the River Liffey and Kippure. The rock has been hollowed out by millennia of weather, a bit like a throne. It’s comfortable, you could sit there for hours, watch the view, thinking how many other people have done exactly that on an August evening, taking it all in, trying your best to ignore the midges. There’s peace up there and solitude. The lonely hags watching on, stoic and enduring in their contorted shapes.